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First spotted in the U.S. in 2019, Asian giant hornets—you know, murder hornets—have become an ongoing problem. As if you don’t already have enough to worry about, murder hornets are now an annual problem in the U.S. The Washington State Department of Agriculture on Thursday announced that it located and eradicated the first nest of Asian giant hornets, better known by the much more catchy murder hornets, in the state this year. The nest contained some 1,500 hornets “in various stages of development,” WSDA said in a press release, and photos released by the department show many were in the...

...When fed a steady stream of ultraviolet rays, all of the nests glowed, each with a bit of regional flair: The four from Vietnam all pulsed in green, while the other two, from Europe and South America, were a more muted teal-ish blue. ... ...The wasps themselves didn’t light up; neither did the topmost parts of the nests, constructed out of chewed-up wood (hence the “paper” moniker). The glow, the researchers found, came from....

You may have heard of “murder hornets,” or Asian giant hornets, which made international headlines after a small number were spotted in the Pacific Northwest in 2019 and 2020. They are currently confined to the far northwestern corner of Washington State, in part due to a targeted campaign to find them and eradicate their nests. Even so, the discovery of these aggressive, two-inch-long insects known for decimating entire honeybee colonies led to concern throughout the United States, with many people misidentifying local wasps as murder hornets. What many people are actually seeing, according to entomologist Justin Schmidt at the University...

Summer is approaching in the northern hemisphere, heralding the return of that great scourge of al fresco diners everywhere: the wasp. Now, a new study out of the University of Michigan reveals that the striped critters aren't just pesky -- they're smart. The research found that wasps can use a form of logical reasoning to infer unknown relationships from known relationships, according to a press release. Essentially this means they can work out that if is X is greater than Y, and Y is greater than Z, X is greater than Z -- an ability that was thought to be...

This gives new meaning to the term bar fight. So-called "lager lout" wasps are attacking Britain after getting drunk drinking fermented fruit and leftover pub-garden cider, stinging anyone and everyone they can find, the Daily Mail reports. The angry insects are getting into the booze since their normal diet, which consists of flies and sugar-spit that is produced from the queen's larvae, is scarce. The change in diet is said to happen every year but this year has been especially worse, due in large part to the unusually cold winter Britain experienced, letting the wasps build larger than normal nests....

Where are the animal rights activists when you need them? h/t SmallDeadAnimalsHonestly, I think zoning laws should make these wasp zapping contraptions mandatory for all new builds, but then I’m deathly allergic to wasps so I’ll allow as how my position may be considered extreme. Still, nothing - not even ants - can ruin a good picnic the way wasps can. It does occur to me that if you can take out that many wasps with just a modified string trimmer the carnage caused by their much larger mechanical relatives must be biblical.I call for a pox on all of...

Scientists discovered a new wasp species with a terrifyingly large stinger. Researchers from the University of Turku in Finland recently discovered the Clistopyga crassicaudata, which lives between the Andes mountains and the Amazon rainforests. "I have studied tropical parasitoid wasps for a long time, but I have never seen anything like it," said Ilari E. Sääksjärvi, a professor at the University of Turku. "The stinger looks like a fierce weapon."

Aggressive yellowjacket populations are booming this year in the Bay Area as reports of complaints about nests hit records in many areas. For breaking news get our mobile app for free from the Apple app store or the Google Play store. Winter rains produced plenty of insects to eat, which helped wasp nests thrive, insect experts say. Hot September weather, like the Labor Day heat wave, spurred the insects to hunt more aggressively for food, increasing the opportunities for human encounters of a painful kind. Vector control districts in Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties have received record numbers...

President Barack Obama has signed a bill into law that will again allow the ashes of female World War II pilots known as WASPs to be placed at Arlington National Cemetery. The women served in a unit called Women Airforce Service Pilots. They flew noncombat missions to free male pilots for combat. They were considered civilians during the war, but federal law since 1977 granted them veteran status. …

After spending the past decade studying ground-nesting wasps a team of researchers from the Australian National University believe that they've unlocked the secret to the insects' uncanny homing abilities -- one they hope can be applied to future UAV development. Modern, autonomous UAVs have to be laden with high resolution cameras, GPS radios and a slew of other high-tech gadgetry in order to know where they are and where they're going. Wasps, on the other hand, only need their compound eyes and a daily refresher flight.

A home in the U.K. was invaded by a monstrous colony of wasps, and the infestation was like a scene out of a 1960s Hitchcock movie, a local pest controller said. "I couldn't believe my eyes," John Birkett, an employee at Longwood Services Pest Control, told ABC News today, referring to the nest of an estimated 5,000 wasps. "It was like the horror film 'Birds' but [with] wasps." Birkett said he got a call from the homeowner’s son on Sunday about a nest that had taken over a bed in a spare bedroom in the home in Worchester, Hampshire. The...

SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. – A pregnant mother of four died suddenly Monday after she was stung by wasps working in her backyard. Sarah Harkins, 32, leaves behind a husband and four children. (PHOTO: Ashley Schulzetenberg) Sarah Harkins, 32, leaves behind a husband and four children. (PHOTO: Ashley Schulzetenberg) Sarah Marie Schulzetenberg Harkins, 32, died at the hospital when an aneurysm in her brain burst, Harkins’ husband told Fredericksburg.com. Her unborn baby, who was to be named Cecilia Rachel, also passed away. The aneurysm burst due to the stress the stings and an allergic reaction brought on, the article stated. Harkins...

More than 15 wasps stung Lucie Roussel's legs near her Quebec home. She became La Prairie's mayor in 2005 and recently won reelection to a third term. ... Paramedics gave her an EpiPen to treat an allergic reaction, but it didn't help, La Prairie spokeswoman Chantal Charron said. The 51-year-old mayor, who was apparently not allergic to bees, died at a nearby hospital from multiple stings and shock ... She leaves behind two teenage children — her daughter, Constance, and her son, Antonin. Her husband died several years ago from a heart attack

Evolution is fricking amazing. Nowhere is this more evident than in parasites. They make use of and take over their hosts in remarkable ways—truly living up to “survival of the fittest.” For example, regard the beautiful emerald jewel wasp. The wasp paralyzes and zombifies cockroaches to lay an egg on the abdomen of the unsuspecting insects. When the egg hatches, the wasp larva emerges and eventually eats its way into the belly of the roach. The larva then pupates inside the cockroach, building a cocoon and eventually emerging as a grown wasp. Last year we described the unbelievable way the...

All 186 wasp species recently discovered in Costa Rica are lethal killers—parasites that kill their caterpillar hosts in a macabre manner.Earier this year, a study came out describing a new plant species in the Andes that is the sole home of an estimated 40 or 50 kinds of insects. I thought that had a certain “wow” factor. It also seemed like a chance to write about “keystone species”—the ones on which whole ecosystems depend—and the ripple effects when such a species goes extinct. So I asked for a comment from evolutionary ecologist Dan Janzen at the University of Pennsylvania, and...

An incident reminiscent of Biblical plagues descended on a village in northern China. It was there that swarms of huge and deadly hornets have killed more than 40 people and injured 1,600 more. Currently, 37 patients are in critical or guarded condition in hospitals in Shaanxi province. Photographs show that victims suffered wounds resembling the impacts of bullets that left deep, dark craters on their unprotected skin. A victim told local media “the more you run, the more they want to chase you.” Some victims were chased for more than 650 feet by the swarms.   The sting of...

Already the scourge of a summer picnic or barbecue, experts are now warning of a new threat from ‘jobless, drunk’ wasps. Environmental authorities say billions of the insects are currently at their most ‘aggressive and dangerous’ as they have finished supplying their queens with nectar. The British Red Cross is advising sun-worshippers to keep a credit card handy in case of insect bites this summer; as the long cold winter and a late spring has triggered record numbers of wasps in UK parks and gardens. “It’s hilarious that, now worker wasps have finished their life’s work, all they are doing...

Good morning gardeners. I can’t believe it is already December, Brrrrrrrrr! It is 27 this morning in East Central Mississippi and is forecast to be in the mid 60s this afternoon. There are no plans to do any outside work for this gardener today. What needs to be done can wait until Saturday and Sunday when it is supposed to be in the high 60s and into the 70s. Just waiting for Spring now. If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in...

An American scientist working with a team of Indonesians scientists has discovered a new giant black warrior wasp species. The wasp will be added to the list of items named after the country’s national symbol, the mythical bird Garuda. The insect-eating predator was discovered by Lynn S. Kimsey, a professor of entomology and the director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, while working with 12 scientists from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) during an expedition to the Mekongga Mountains of Sulawesi. Scientists are shocked by the discovery of the insect, with the male...

If a ladybug's life were a horror film, this is how it would start: Scary string music. A close-up of the green-eyed face of a wasp. The sudden pierce of a stinger. The screen goes dark. Next, an establishing shot of our ladybug hero, sitting placidly on a leaf. Suddenly, the sky clouds over. Something orange and grubby begins to poke from the ladybug's abdomen. Audience members cover their eyes, expecting a quick, gruesome end for the black-and-red insect. But it's not that easy. Instead of dying, the ladybug survives as a wasp larva emerges from its abdomen and begins...